


Midnight Run

by constellayetion



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Getting Together, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-16 00:54:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,690
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29445138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/constellayetion/pseuds/constellayetion
Summary: Sokka and Suki are dating.Zuko and Sokka are dating.And Zuko and Suki? Well, they're just good friends.Unless...
Relationships: Sokka/Suki (Avatar), Sokka/Suki/Zuko (Avatar), Sokka/Zuko (Avatar), Suki/Zuko (Avatar), Suki/Zuko-centric, past Suki/Jet, past Zuko/Jin - Relationship
Comments: 13
Kudos: 133
Collections: HZH Palentine's Day 2021





	Midnight Run

**Author's Note:**

  * For [burnt_oranges](https://archiveofourown.org/users/burnt_oranges/gifts).



> Wheat I love you so much and hope you accept this humble offering.

Zuko woke up with a start. 

Something was wrong, something was wrong, something was—

Sokka snored, loudly in his ear, snuffling back into his neck. 

Figures. Sokka was fine, so everything must be fine. 

And Suki was…

Not here. 

Huh. Strange. Very, very strange. Probably bad. Well, maybe bad. Well, bad enough Zuko should go find out. 

Zuko carefully replaced himself with a pillow in Sokka’s arms. Then, spent one second staring back at Sokka nuzzling into said pillow and murmuring about leaf birds, wondering how he got so lucky to end up with this strange, strange boy. 

And then Zuko slipped out of the room. 

They were staying at one of the houses in Suki’s village. Toph, Aang, and Teo were on a short trip to the Northern Air Temple. Or maybe it was the Southern. Zuko could never keep track with the three of them continually traveling from one to another but they always came back for a visit every few days. Then, Mai, Ty Lee, and Katara were currently on a ‘Ladies bonding trip’, which Zuko was pretty were the cause of the numerous reports of factories being destroyed and various sightings of ‘water spirits’ curing people and punching seemingly random adults in the face. 

Those three came back to visit every couple of days as well. Soon, all of them would travel back to Ba Sing Se, since spending more than two weeks apart would lead to all of them having a slight break down or showing up at the others’ current location in the middle of the night. 

Not to mention, Toph had not taken kindly to Zuko and Suki and Sokka’s midnight visits in the past and all three of them still remember the bruises that came with it (Even though it was worth it). 

For now, the three oldest were by themselves. 

Azula was currently ruling and Zuko still had a month and a half before he had to take over from her. Suki’s Warriors were rebuilding homes across the Earth Kingdom and training locals how to take care of said homes and rebuild more villages. Sokka was inventing and corresponding with more officials than Zuko could keep in his head, which let him travel whenever and wherever he wanted. 

Things were good. 

And Suki was crying. 

She was sitting on their front steps, looking up into the dark sky and crying. 

Sokka had told him emotions were always turbulent during the new moon. He also said that was pigshark-shit and fish tales but, it still seemed to reign true. 

“Hi Suki.” Zuko said. He didn’t know whether to stare at the ground or the sky so he ended up just staring at her, the shadows on her cheek, the way her hair moved as she jerked to look at him, the squawk of her voice as she said—

“Zuko! Why are you  _ up _ — go back to sleep you—”

“Do you want to go for a run?” 

Suki paused. 

“It’s dark out,” she said. 

Zuko shrugged. 

Suki looked down at her robe. 

“I’ll go change,” she said, brushing past him, and was into the house before she could see Zuko’s smile. 

Why was he happy? He just liked running. And Suki was a good friend. And they were both dating the same person, so they should be close, of course. 

Of course. 

They were good friends. 

Suki was...one of the most important people in his life. He hadn’t spent a day apart from her since the comet (except for a truly disastrous fishing trip Sokka had taken him and Aang on that had lasted exactly 25 hours). 

He couldn’t think of a thing about himself that she didn’t know, accept, and make fun of him for in the most kind, gentle way possible. He knew her favorite foods. All of them. He could make a seven course meal and pick correctly for every single dish and when did that happen? 

“I’m ready,” Suki said behind him. 

He turned. And nodded. Jerkily. 

She looked...like Suki. She looked fine. She had shoes on and everything. 

Time to run. 

Zuko turned without a word, feeling, not needing to see Suki at his side. 

His right side, where she ran easily and that realization made something sit at the bottom of his gut, heavy and sudden and shocking. It wasn’t fear. It didn’t feel like fear. But it still sat large and thick in his stomach, spreading warmth that sparked and churned inside him. 

He picked up to a jog. Suki’s feet hit the ground rhythmically next to his. 

Thump, thump, thump, broken up by the occasional crackle of leaves, the sporadic point out of creatures they had seen a thousand times but Suki still lit up every time they poked their head up. 

Zuko turned his head the full way every single time, looking at her face, not even glancing at the path ahead. 

Honestly, it was a miracle he didn’t fall, he would have deserved it. 

They ran until Zuko’s lungs felt clear and clean again, until the water on Suki’s face was only sweat, until they were both bone tired, until Zuko was wrinkling his nose and telling her she needed a bath and she was chasing him into the surf. 

Sokka complained about the bed being wet the next day, but it was worth it. 

And Zuko fell asleep with Suki, warm and happy in his arms and the smell of salt in the air. 

* * *

Suki shoved Zuko off a pier. 

That might have been what started it. 

They were going into Sui Village (slightly north of Ch’in village because Suki hated it, Sokka was banned, and Zuko would get lost if he went by himself). They wanted a welcome back gift for Aang and Toph and Teo and Katara and..the rest of them. All of those people they hung out with all the time. And, of course, Sokka wanted to go shopping. And Suki wanted dessert. 

Which meant, when Zuko jokingly made fun of her strong strong affinity for sugar, she might have pushed him a little, and then he pushed her back, and then she shoved him off a pier. 

Well, at least he didn’t have the money. Or any important documents. Or anything important at all, other than himself. 

But, he also wasn’t coming up for air. 

“Zuko, this isn’t funny!” She yelled from the pier, shoving at Sokka, who was doing a terrible job at hiding his laugh. 

It really wasn’t funny. 

Did Zuko know how to swim? He had to, right? 

He had swam a million times with them, but what if he was wearing heavier clothing? What if he hit his head and forgot how to swim? What if Sui Village had their own serpent that was currently eating him? 

“Zuko!” she yelled, trying to keep the panic from her voice as she crouched down, “Zuko, come up!” 

Shit, he wasn’t coming up. Oh no, he wasn’t coming up. Zuko wasn't coming up.

“Zuko!” She screamed, leaning even further over the water. 

And then a pale arm shot out and pulled her in. 

“You...you mother _ FUCKER _ ,” she hissed as she came to the surface. 

If she was angry, she couldn’t be worried, right? If she was yelling, then she wasn’t upset or concerned, right? Right. 

“I hate you,” she said, with as much venom as she could muster. 

“I know.” Zuko smiled, and then dived under, coming up to shoot water out of his mouth at Sokka, still on the dock. 

Fuck, Suki was smiling. She was supposed to be angry. Smiling is not angry!

Zuko turned back to her, his eyes glancing from her eyes, to her mouth, to her eyes again. 

His hand gently circled her wrists and her hands were not shaking, because she wasn’t upset and she did not think that Zuko had died and it was her fault. That was  _ not  _ what happened. 

“I’m sorry if I scared you,” he said quietly as Sokka squawked in the background. Apparently, one of his scrolls got a drop of water on it. 

“ _ If  _ you did, then you should be sorry.” She snapped back. Angry, not sad, not concerned. Angry. 

Zuko’s foot brushed her as they treaded water together. 

Why were they still in this dock? People were probably staring. And her hair was wet. 

Apparently, he noticed the same thing, and that same stupid, pale, muscled arm shot out, around her middle, as Zuko started a strong backstroke back to the shore. 

He even paddled on the other side so he wouldn’t splash her, the asshole. 

“Well, if I did scare you,” he said as he swam, with her  _ unwillingly  _ attached to him, “then I suppose I would have to make it up to you.” 

“You fucking better.” 

“If I did.” 

“If you did. Then you fucking better make it up to me.” 

Zuko snorted. And then ran into a pole. Which definitely made up for things. 

Suki laughed,  _ against her will _ , and then jumped out of the water, easily pulling the Zuko idiot boy out behind her. 

Except...he still looked weird and dazed. 

Maybe he hit his head harder than she thought. 

He stared at her as she kneeled over him with her hair that was gods-damned wet now and falling in her face. 

“You okay, hotstuff?” She asked and then he...blinked back into himself? He blinked and the weird confused face was gone. Weird, weird guy. 

“Yes. Yes, I am okay.” 

“Okay.”. 

“Okay,” he said. Then, turned, coughed, and sat up, narrowly missing Suki’s head. “Alright!” He said, his voice strained, but warm and sweet, as it always got when he would be awkward and weird and nice and sweet and weird, “I believe I have a hypothetical making-up to do.” 

He brushed her hair off to the side, froze, and then got saved by Sokka catching up to them, finally, and Zuko announcing the first thing they were doing was a confectionaires shop. 

They went to five different candy shops that day. 

It was a good day. Suki still smiled looking back on it, just a little. 

* * *

Zuko was cooking. 

Zuko didn’t know how to cook. 

Why was Zuko cooking?

“Sokka, why am I cooking?” Zuko asked, hearing footsteps behind him and recognizing Sokka because of the slightly heavier weight given to the left foot, when Suki walked silently but always wore slightly loose clothes that rubbed against each other. 

“I don’t know Zuko. Why are you cooking?” 

Zuko glared at the pot. And ignored the fire flaring up under it. Or the crackle of...something that shouldn’t be crackling. Or the oil splashing up onto his arms. 

“Suki was having a hard day yesterday,” he punctuated, slamming a pan with another failed attempt at food into the sink and scrubbing at it, the steam flaring up be damned. 

“Yes?” Sokka asked. 

“Yeah,” Zuko said, the hint of growl returning to his voice like he was an angry, sad, lonely fifteen-year-old again and he felt the beginnings of a headache coming on. 

Suddenly, there was a wall of Sokka-body behind him and Sokka-hands covering his own and taking away the brush and Sokka-head on his shoulder, which meant that Sokka was up on his tip-toes to match Zuko’s height. 

One of Sokka’s thumbs brushed over Zuko’s wrist. Sokka’s hands always felt so nice. 

“Hey, Zuko, maybe you should take a break,” he said in Zuko’s ear. 

“Why.” Zuko said. 

“There are scorch marks on the ceiling.” 

Shit. 

Zuko looked up. There were scorch marks on the ceiling. 

“Shit.” 

What was Zuko doing? What was he thinking? 

Ugh. 

“I can hear you stressing from over here,” Sokka said, poking him in the back, “Where is the off button. Zuko stop. Stop Zuko. Bad Zuko-brain off.”

“Try again later,” Zuko muttered, even as he let Sokka turn him around. 

“What’s wrong Zukoooo,” Sokka teased, dragging out the last vowel. “Zuko, Zuko, Zuko. Boy who I love so much. Boy who almost burnt our very nice borrowed house down. What’s wrong, hotstuff?”

And that was what Suki called him. 

And Zuko wanted to laugh and throw up a little bit and also hug Sokka until things were okay. 

One of those was mose feasible than the others.

He buried his face into the Sokka-shoulder, having to scrunch his own a little, even as Sokka grew faster than him and always stayed just a tad behind, wrapping his arms around Sokka’s middle and ignoring the ‘oof’ as he squeezed. 

“Okay. Alright. Okay,” Sokka said, his hands finding his way to his back, one cupping where his skull meets his neck and holding. “Okay. This is fine. I might have underestimated the severity of the cooking situation. Alright.” 

“Suki is upset,” Zuko whispered, and didn’t know how to say anything more. It felt like fire ants were stealing his skin, like Azula always teased him about, like he had a constant sunburn, like being stung by bird-bees every second, like all the time there was just a small, constant,  _ wrongness  _ simmering under the surface all the time that hadn’t changed, no matter what he tried. Which was bad. Which meant something worse was going to happen. 

But none of those made it into words or even sounds and “Suki’s upset,” was all he said. 

Sokka didn’t speak for a while and at some point they were sitting on the floor, Zuko’s head against Sokka’s chest, limbs mixed together and the edges blurring in Zuko’s mind. 

The thing wasn’t fixed and Zuko didn’t know how to fix it. 

He didn’t even know where he was supposed to start. 

Sokka’s heart stayed steady, a ever-present thumping that made Zuko begin to understand why Toph was the way she was. 

It was grounding. 

Like ground. 

Like something steady, something safe. 

Even while Suki was still upset, the world was still wrong, and the fire-ants still existed, no matter how much Katara claimed it wasn’t true. 

“You should tell her,” Sokka said. It was already night by that time and who knows when that happened. “If you care about her and don’t want her to be upset, you should tell her.” 

Zuko didn’t say anything to that. 

Even as he thought of sentences and replies and more sentences long after that. 

The next day, Zuko gave her a letter that made her cry, opened after he had already left for a half-day delegation in the Southern Water Tribe. 

By the time Zuko got back, there was a clean ceiling and homemade dumplings, complete with fire-chili paste and a long, happy dinner they all got to spend together where none of them mentioned any of this. 

* * *

Sokka loved Ba Sing Se. 

And his girlfriend. 

And his boyfriend. 

And his friends. 

He did not love the weird tension that had drifted over all of them. 

However, it was quickly alleviated and exasperated by the arrival of— 

“Jet!”

“Jin!” 

“Suki!” 

“Zuko!”

“Sokka,” Sokka muttered to himself, not feeling put out at all. 

Everyone he dated had cool, nice, attractive exes, while he  _ also  _ had that, but with a girl who was up in the sky and living her best, eternal life and not here to bitch with him. 

Which he noticed, as they immediately split off, with Jin whispering to Zuko and Jet and Suki having a half-hissed fight about...something. 

“Anyone hungry?” he asked. 

Four sets of eyes snapped to him as their owners froze. 

“Hungry,” Jin said. 

“I’m starving,” Jet said. 

“Completely,” Jin said. 

“Creepy.” Sokka said. “Let’s eat.” 

When no one moved, he went ahead and grabbed Suki and Zuko, then ushered their whole group to the restaurant, ignoring the weird looks everyone kept shooting at...everyone. 

A whole mess. 

At least Sokka was able to bury his head in a bowl of noodle soup (or two, or three, the food here was  _ good _ ) and ignore Jet making pointed comments about Suki’s fighting ability or Jin’s comments about how kind and caring Zuko’s letters were or Jet’s comments about how strong and wonderful a leader Suki was and Jin’s comments about how gentle and kind of a companion Zuko was. 

Jin was currently in the middle of a story of Zuko saving some orphans from an overturned cabbage cart that Sokka was  _ sure  _ Jin was omitting all of Zuko’s swears from when Jet decided to ask about their...relationship. 

Oh no. 

A Big Oh No. 

Sokka wondered if the bowl of soup would be able to swallow him up instead of having to answer.

Or if the Dai Li could just come and take him. 

Or if he asked the universe nicely it would send Foo Foo Cuddlypoops could come to eat him so he wouldn’t have to deal with this. 

“So…” Jet drawled, with his lopsided smile that  _ way  _ too many people saw as attractive when it was not, not at all, nuh-uh, “how does  _ this  _ all work?” 

His face was the picture of innocence, unlike what Sokka knew his soul was. 

“Well, we are all dating, which means that—”

“Oh, so you all love each other!” Jin interrupted, her eyes glittering with something that Sokka hadn’t seen in her before. 

Something...worrisome. 

“Yes,” Zuko said just as Suki said-

“No.”

Shit. 

“I mean—” Zuko stammered.

“Well, of course—” Suki corrected. 

“Suki is a very good friend,” Zuko stated. 

“I love Zuko a lot,” Suki reassured. 

“We are not…” Zuko trailed off. 

“But we’re aren’t…” Suki’s words cut out. 

There was a long awkward, painful silence. 

“Married?” Jin offered, with a sheepish smile. She tried so hard to be helpful. It was sweet. It was not helpful. 

“Oh, I see,” Jet grinned, “You aren’t  _ married _ , but you are all together.” 

“Not quite,” Zuko choked out.

“But you all love each other, don’t you,” Jin puzzled as Zuko gave her a knowing, deadly glare that...did nothing to stop this conversation. 

“Of course.” Suki said, staring at her bowl. 

Zuko looked at the ground, with a nod. 

And Jin and Jet grinned at each other triumphantly. 

And Sokka snapped. 

“Okay!” He slammed his hands on the table. His voice level, but serious as Hakoda taught him. “I’m going to say this once and then we will have a nice dinner and  _ not  _ continue talking about our relationship, when there are clearly alternate purposes for this that I do  _ not  _ want to know because I do  _ not  _ want to think that our friends would have any goal of anything less than keeping us happy. I am dating Suki and Zuko, which they know, and both support and discuss with me and each other. I love both of them very, very, very much and do not see or plan on a future without either of them. Both of them make me incredibly happy and I trust more than I ever thought I could trust another person. While Zuko and Suki are not romantically involved, they still love each other and have one of the closest relationships I have ever seen. They are supportive to each other, and understand each other in a way I can’t, and no one other than the two of them can and nothing will threaten or take away that relationship. Okay? Are we done? Can the five of us  _ please  _ have a nice meal now? With our friends who we also love dearly and would like to have a  _ peaceful  _ vacation with?”

“Yes Sokka,” four voices around the table muttered. 

“Good.” He said, and returned to his now fourth bowl of soup. “Jin, please tell us about the new farm.” 

As Sokka dived into his new soup, listening to his unexpected but good friend eagerly dive into sharing her weird, weird, weird underground growing techniques that he desperately hoped to see one day, he missed the triumphant looks that passed over the table. 

Or the embarrassed flushes on both of his partners’ faces. 

Or the looks that both of them snuck at each other. 

* * *

Suki might have a problem. 

These days, she didn’t suffer from nightmares as much, or random bouts of needing to do something when there was nothing to do, or the occasional convictions that the people she loved were about to die. 

Instead, it was  _ feelings.  _

And Suki  _ liked  _ feelings, so it was even stranger that this time they were...weird. 

The thing was, feelings usually were like a little buzzer telling Suki she needed to do something. Have Feelings for Sokka, buzz buzz, go kiss him, Feel Guilty About Something, buzz buzz, go apologize, Feel Hungry, buzz buzz, go eat food. It was a  _ great  _ system. 

But now she had  _ feelings _ , and didn’t know what the buzz buzz meant. 

And they were all about Zuko. 

She kept staring at him. 

At first, she thought it was surveillance. He was a bit of a mess all the time and also had about 100 people who wanted him dead, so it made sense to keep an eye on him to make sure he was okay and also no one was about to shove a knife in his back. 

She thought it was worry. But it didn’t have the creepy crawly worry feeling. Instead, it felt nice? Which, it made sense to feel good knowing she was protecting someone who was incredibly important to her and who she did not want to die. 

But  _ then _ , she kept getting distracted. 

She would look at Zuko,  _ just  _ making sure he was safe, and start thinking about his hair or teeth or the first time they went swimming together or the sound of his laugh when they were playing a prank on their friends. 

And even when Sokka would talk to her, her brain would be something else, with the warm sticky glowy weird feeling...everywhere. 

It was a problem!

A big, big, big problem. 

And then Jet told her that it might be feelings. Correction, Feelings. 

Which was absurd, except maybe not absurd, but she sent Jet a letter full of itch powder either way. 

And he sent back another one saying that he was right because ‘she was always this childish when he was right’. 

Which he...was also right about…

Either way, she woke up Zuko, and pulled him for their...more-often-then-should-be nightly runs. 

The sound of him running beside her, safe and with her, trusting her to run in his blind spot, to keep him safe while not needing her to, made the glowy feeling come back, strong enough to almost hurt. 

She wanted to cry, but in a good way. 

There was something wrong with her. 

It hit her like a flood when they ran into the wavefront and Zuko looked at her, water catching in his hair, and a smile lighting up his whole face. 

The moon was full tonight. Sokka had once told her that the full moon was for realizations, but also said that was just because you can actually  _ see  _ during it. 

Either way, she could certainly see now. 

She was in love with Zuko. 

She was in love with a beautiful boy that she had already given a year and a half of her life to and couldn’t imagine ever being away from. 

She was in love. That was the Feelings thing (and Jet was right and could go drown himself over it). 

And she had to do something. She shouldn't do something. If Zuko wanted her, he would have said something? Right? And he loved Sokka, and she loved Sokka and wasn’t going to mess that up over Feelings even if Feelings were very important, as she always said to Sokka and Zuko. 

If she messed this up, then Zuko wouldn’t trust her, wouldn’t let her walk on his bad side, wouldn't let her do his hair, run her hands over the nape of his neck, fall asleep on his shoulder. Things were good now and they were all happy. 

Things were perfect now. 

For now, Suki could enjoy the good feelings. 

She could wait. Think. Plan things out. 

And enjoy her time with both the boys she loved. 

* * *

Zuko was a problem. 

Zuko was a bad, weird person. 

Zuko was in love with Suki. 

Which he knew, but now he thought Suki might now. 

He had known it since the day at the docks, when she shoved him in and was easily able to pull him out. She was strong and incredible and funny and kind and beautiful and incredible in every single way. 

And grabbed him from his bad side, without him seeing, and he didn’t feel any fear at all and he knew he was in love with her. Totally, inconceivable, absolutely gone. 

But  _ now  _ his awful, wonderful friend who needed to keep her mouth shut had made it clear to Suki, and now Suki was acting...strange. 

She kept staring at him, touching him for too long, saying extra kind things to him, like she was making sure he was okay, like she was thinking of how to let him down easy. 

Zuko was in love with her. He was happy with what they had. 

He could be friends with Suki. He could be good friends with Suki. He could be anything if he got to stay with her, where things felt safe and okay and good and sensical. 

Things with these two people felt right, like puzzles slotting into place, like the pieces of him that had been missing for so long had come back home. 

Things were easy. 

Zuko had never known things to be easy before. 

So, he let Suki stare, he let her touch, he didn’t ask for it, didn’t expect it, came whenever she called, and gave her anything at all she asked for. A hug, a joke, a smile, a frown, a run in the middle of the night, a reassurance that he was okay and always would be. 

Anything. 

Then, he had to leave. To a meeting Azula just  _ had  _ to have him at (because she needed the reassurance and hadn’t seen him in three weeks, which was too long for both of them) in the Fire Nation. 

Things were already weird, they needed to be fixed, and Zuko needed to tell her. He couldn’t let her wait for him to do something stupid about it all, as he was known to do about...well, everything. 

He wasn’t going to be rash and impulsive this time. 

He wasn’t going to...be Zuko. He wasn’t going to Zuko-it. 

He was going to Sokka-it. He was going to do what Sokka would do. Or, what Sokka would want him to do. There was no way he could do what Sokka would do because Sokka would just have Suki naturally fall in love with him, and that, obviously, did not work for Zuko. 

He was going to write a letter. 

And have Azula read it. 

And tear it apart, until it was perfect, like Suki deserved. 

It would make it clear that he loved her, in each and every possible way, and because of that, he was happy being friends forever and would do anything to make her happy because of how much he loved her, in every single way. 

That was already probably a little too much, which made it even better for Azula to be there to help.

And Zuko didn’t cry or feel stressed or worry when he left  _ at all _ , no matter what all the gross, uncomfortable feelings in his gut were. 

He would be back in a few days. Sokka and Suki were meeting Haru to help fix an irrigation system that had broken and still hadn’t been fixed that would ruin crops soon so they couldn’t come with Zuko. 

None of them mentioned that they didn’t want to leave. 

Or that this was the first time they were all apart since the comet. 

Or that they were all scared. 

Zuko pressed a kiss to Sokka’s lips, and to Suki’s cheek, got in the warship and left. 

And remembered the image of two people he loved, together, Suki’s head on Sokka’s shoulder and his arm around her waist making a perfect picture to leave with. 

* * *

Zuko had been gone for a day and a half and Suki was fine. 

Suki was great. 

Suki was emulating Sokka. 

Not perfectly, of course, because then people would just fall in love with her and it would be perfect, because who wouldn’t fall in love with Sokka? 

But, like Sokka, she was making plans. 

She needed to tell Zuko, and not screw it up, so she wrote a note to him, explaining everything and that it was perfectly fine if he didn’t reciprocate but this is how she felt and it would be wrong to keep that from him and that she loved him up down and forwards so anything he did ever would be fine. And then she re-wrote that note about 37 times, not that she was counting. 

And then put it in a fancy envelope. 

And then took it out of the envelope. 

And then put it in a box that she gave to Sokka so she would stop messing with it and now Zuko was coming back so it was fine. 

She felt the buzzing start as soon as she saw the airship. It wasn’t low in her gut, it was running down her arms and legs, like being hit with lighting, like the world was being shot full of color. 

She didn’t even notice how hard she was grinning until Sokka poked her in the cheek and she was so happy she kissed him, hard and full of teeth and still smiling through it. 

Zuko was almost back. 

Zuko was almost home. 

Zuko could be seen, waving from the balcony, the same grin on his face, messed up hair in the wind, already tugged out of any sense of regality, the necklace Sokka had made him on a string around his neck, the same beautiful person that Suki wanted to spend the rest of her life with. 

She wanted to spend the rest of her life with him. 

He was barely even on the ground before Suki was in his arms, not even registering how he jumped over the basket to run to her, all that mattered was Zuko, and Zuko being there, and Zuko being with her, and being able to be with Zuko again. 

Zuko. Zuko, Zuko, Zuko. Even the name felt good to think again, no worry, no sadness, just him, here and with her. 

And her actual boyfriend, standing off to the side, looking confused. 

Suki pulled back, looking at Zuko and blurting out, 

“I have a note for you,” at the same time he blurted out,

“I have a letter for you.” 

They stared at each other. And then scrambled, Zuko thrusting out something on the fancy paper, with an envelope, of course, while Suki got Sokka to get her note out of his pockets. 

She couldn't wait. She was too nervous. She took his letter, shoved the note at him, stared at the front of it, and willed herself not to think about what it was. 

It was a letter. 

Just a letter. 

She opened the seal and took it out and ignored her shaking hands, her confused boyfriend, her...Zuko in front of her. 

It was going to be fine. She loved both of them and it was going to be fine. 

She opened the letter and read. 

And read. 

And read. 

And noticed herself crying. Heard Zuko’s slight gasp in front of her, his own caught breathing. 

He loved her. 

Zuko loved her. 

Zuko wrote her a letter saying that he loved her. 

And it was perfect. 

Suki bit down on her lip, reading the rest, reading the promises, the hopes, the  _ amount _ , that this boy somehow had come to love her, this amazing, beautiful, strong and incredible, kind and astounding boy had come to love her. 

He was hers. 

He would let her love him. 

He was hers now. 

She didn’t drop the letter, the way someone would in the plays Zuko dragged them too. She folded it carefully, put it back in its envelope, and calmly asked Sokka to put it in the waterproof pocket of his bag. 

Then, she looked at Zuko, with his own face of tears and soft lips and soft smile, his way of looking at her like he couldn’t even believe what was happening. 

Not that she could either. 

But, it made sense. They were all perfect together, a perfect match, a set that was meant to be connected, like a perfect eclipse, lining up just right. 

She touched his face, gently, right on the jaw, like she hadn’t gotten to before, tilting her head, just barely to the side. 

“May I?” She asked, like she never had gotten to before. 

Zuko nodded, smiled, and then nodded again. 

His lips were soft, like she always imagined, spreading gently into a smile as she kissed them. And a kiss turned into a hug, lasting long, feeling warm like she never had before and she wondered if this was how fire-benders always felt, like the sun was always in the sky and never showed a sign of setting. 

And then Zuko stole another kiss and then Suki buried her face in his chest. 

She couldn't stop smiling. 

She must look like an idiot, she couldn't stop smiling at all. 

“I— I can’t stop smiling,” she said. “Sokka, I—” Her face dropped. “Sokka.” 

She looked over to see her boyfriend, grinning just as big, just as many tears in his eyes. 

“I thought you two were fighting,” he whispered, carefully, gently taking the note out of Zuko’s hands, where he still held it and putting it next to Suki’s in his bag. “I thought something was wrong.” 

“But, it’s perfect now,” Zuko said. “It’s perfect.” 

And Sokka sealed that promise with another kiss, and then Suki gave another, and Zuko gave another, and then more and more, all of them as full of smiles as the first. 

And the final piece of them clicked, perfectly, into place. 


End file.
